Acceptance is the moment when responsibility moves from the supplier to you. Everything found before the signature is the supplier problem; almost everything found afterwards becomes yours. The checks below take about an hour and decide who pays for the next twelve months.
1. Completeness — against the specification, not against the boxes
Count against the contract specification, not the delivery note and not the number of packages. Missing accessories, cables, mounting kits and starter consumables are the most common shortfall, and the least likely to be noticed while a truck is waiting.
Check that the model and modification match what was ordered. Equipment supplied in a different configuration is not automatically wrong — but if it was not agreed in writing, the moment to raise it is now.
2. The documents without which the equipment cannot be registered as an asset
- Passport or technical data sheet with the serial number recorded.
- Warranty document stating the term, the conditions and who performs service.
- Conformity and quality documents required for your sector.
- Operating manual — in a language the people using the equipment actually read.
- Delivery and accounting documents matching the contract.
Serial numbers on the equipment must match the serial numbers on the paperwork. A mismatch discovered a year later during a warranty claim or an audit is a genuinely difficult problem, and it takes thirty seconds to prevent.
3. External inspection before unloading
Transport damage is the one category that becomes impossible to prove after the vehicle leaves. Inspect the packaging first, then the equipment itself: dents, cracks, leaks, bent frames, broken control panels. Photograph anything questionable together with the packaging, before it is discarded.
If damage is visible, it belongs in the transport documents at that moment — not in a phone call afterwards.
4. Test start-up — always, even if the equipment will not be used for months
Equipment accepted without being switched on is equipment accepted on trust. Start it, run it, and where possible run it under load. A generator that starts, a pump that pumps, a lift that travels its full path.
Seasonal equipment is the classic trap: a set delivered in spring and first started in autumn is a fault discovered after the warranty conversation became complicated. An hour in spring is worth the whole claim.
5. What to write in the certificate if something is wrong
The correct answer is almost never «do not sign at all» — that stalls the project. The correct answer is to sign with the defects recorded: what is missing, what is damaged, what did not start, and by when the supplier undertakes to resolve it.
A certificate signed clean because «they promised to bring it next week» is the document that will be quoted back to you. What is written down exists; what was agreed verbally does not.
Who should be present
The person who will operate the equipment, not only the person who signs for it. Operators notice in five minutes what a procurement signature never will — and they are the ones who will live with what is accepted.
We hand over equipment with commissioning and instruction as part of the delivery, and we record defects in the certificate ourselves when there are any. It is a shorter conversation than a warranty dispute. Tell us what you are procuring — our engineers will prepare the delivery and the handover.